I can always select default kernel (2.4.20) at lilo prompt and boot ok.
So i know the filesystem, etc, is ok.

cat /etc/fstab
####
# I am including this so you know, but this is not in fstab,
# does not get mounted, I thought this was part of the problem,
# like if i add a new kernel, i'm putting in on '/boot' which is actually
# on dev/hda2 because the real '/boot' is not mounted, however
# the system seems to know where real boot is, if i do a make install
# with the kernel the image get's moved to /dev/hda1 '/boot' properly.
###/dev/hda1 /boot ext2 defaults 0 0